Abstract
We investigate theoretically light scattering of photons by ultracold atoms in an optical lattice in the linear regime. A full quantum theory for the atom-photon interactions is developed as a function of the atomic state in the lattice along the Mott-insulator-superfluid phase transition, and the photonic-scattering cross section is evaluated as a function of the energy and of the direction of emission. The predictions of this theory are compared with the theoretical results of a recent work on Bragg scattering in time-of-flight measurements. We show that, when performing Bragg spectroscopy with light scattering, the photon recoil gives rise to an additional atomic site-to-site hopping, which can interfere with ordinary tunneling of matter waves and can significantly affect the photonic-scattering cross section. © 2010 The American Physical Society.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 013404 |
Journal | Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics |
Volume | 81 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 5 Jan 2010 |